


I Wish It Were Not So (A Sudden Yet Expected Departure)

by ohmygoshwhatascream



Series: An Unlikely Companionship (Time Has Changed and Nothing is the Way It Once Was) [1]
Category: Chrono Trigger
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post Game, arguably hints of frog/leene, elements of ptsd, identity crisis, its supposed to be platonic but view it as you wish, very slightly hinted frog/magus at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 10:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygoshwhatascream/pseuds/ohmygoshwhatascream
Summary: Glenn sees the world around him, but it is no longer the same.He has to leave, he can’t stay here, trapped beneath these stone walls. But saying goodbye to an old friend is always difficult, no matter the challegenes he has faced.
Series: An Unlikely Companionship (Time Has Changed and Nothing is the Way It Once Was) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538209
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	I Wish It Were Not So (A Sudden Yet Expected Departure)

**Author's Note:**

> mmmm I love frog/Glenn, honestly my second favourite video game character ever. I love the idea of him and Magus striking up an unlikely friendship post game, Magus looking for Schala and Glenn tagging along (to Magus’ complete confusion)

He feels a restlessness he had not felt before.

Suddenly the world around him seems so small, so contained. It’s as if he’s been locked in a little glass jar, like an insect, a bug, a pest. He can see the world around him crystal clear, but it’s edges curl in a way he does not remember. If he is in a jar, he wonders when the air around him will grow stale. When there will simply be nothing good left and he will choke, gasp, call out for help that isn’t there. 

The sky twists in downward spirals to the centre of the earth and it no longer feels like home.

He wonders if such feelings are the culmination of his journey. The aftermath of seeing time itself from behind the curtains, the loose ends that the world had failed to tie up. 

The gates had distorted the very spinning of this earth. Suddenly, he has found himself feeling as if he too has spun too fast, slipping of his axis and into the unknown between the cracks.

Leaves crunch under his feet and the tree branches whisper against the wind. Winter is drawing near and everything looks dead, barren. 

Breaths puffing out in clouds of smoke, He hurries under the canopy of naked trees, their stick arms bare and empty under a chilled grey sky. 

His legs move methodically, his mind not even aware of what he is doing. He does not need to think, his body heads forward as if he is a mere puppet on a string. 

He has walked this path a million times, before and now; after. 

The thick trunks of the trees rumble in their own strange tongue as he hops on by. He feels their eyes upon him, irises carved from thick oak and gnarled wood. 

He knows which trees will stay here and which ones will be gone. He can see the spots where new trees will grow and he feels the shadows of trees that were once there but had disappeared through the tyranny of humankind. 

The world around him no longer exists as it once had. The gates had altered something far more than the passage of time.

It had created a place that no longer existed. 

This place was not home. It’s too small, too contained. His home had never appeared like cut out stencils. It had once been real, there had been no rift in space, no future and past and present that weren’t quite right. 

It’s not as hot as it was when the reptites walked the earth.

He prefers the covet of trees in the future, these ones are far too clustered together. 

He preferred the world when it was his. Now he does not know where his life will lead. The cracks in time have changed things. _Is he still himself? Or has that been lost too?_

He wonders if the trees know that one day they’ll be cut down and replaced with sheets of metal and steel. Their bark, tender flesh, will be squashed into little sheets of paper. They’ll be written on and people will draw and scribble all over their corpses. They’ll be thrown away and they’ll return to the ground they came from.

_Disposable_.

The trees around him wave and he feels a sudden urge to flood the land. The ink will drip down the pages and the paper will turn into mush. Wash away in dribbles and slip down the cracks that he can’t seem to cover.

_This world is not the same. _

-

Queen Leene smiles down at him. Always soft, her gaze. Always gentle. It’s one thing that hasn’t changed. 

She takes a sip of her tea, her pinky finger extended ever so gracefully as she peers over the rim of her teacup.

“You are not happy here.”

She states, matter of fact. Her eyes flash with something that he cannot quite draw a name to, but her voice does not waver.

He nods, inclining his head forward ever so slightly. His throat feels dry and he wishes that his hands were not webbed and so clumsy. He can’t hold a teacup properly, not like a human can.

“You wish to leave.”

She continues, taking another sip. He averts his gaze from her face.

She speaks nothing but the truth, yet the illustration of his feelings into the natural world make him feel something melancholy swirl in the depths of his soul. 

They do not speak for the rest of the evening. 

Twilight burns in orange over the horizon and the queen raises a hand over her mouth. Her voice is almost swallowed by the sky, but he manages to catch the soft lilt of her voice like a summers wind. 

“Please, tell me I am wrong. You truly do not wish to leave, do you? 

She asks into the burning sky.

He swallows. He blinks, bulbous eyes luminous as the sun dips below the land.

He knows that the words she speaks, the rumours that have graced her ears, are true. He cannot lie to her, but he longs to lesson the crease of her brow and the loneliness stirring in her eyes. 

“T’is true, your majesty. I apologise.”

He bows his head, not able to face the pain he knows burns in her gentle gaze. He swallows and feels his own uselessness, his insecurities that he thought had been destroyed with Lavos, rear their ugly heads.

But instead, he feels a hand rest upon his own. He can feel the warmth of human touch, something he had missed so dearly since Cyrus’ death all those years ago. Even through the fabric of her silken gloves, Leene’s hands are every bit as gentle and soft as herself.

“Do what you must.” She whispers, voice thick with emotion.

“I will not stop you. And, although it pains me to see you leave, I value your happiness above everything else, sir knight.”

Her hands briefly squeeze his own webbed ones. She does not flinch, even though his skin must be uncomfortably damp and cool to the touch.

He feels tears rise to his eyes, his heart deeply touched by her blessing.

With a nervousness burning the very centre of his soul, he raises his head to look at her.

The rims of her eyes, so soft and delicate, are marred by a redness that stings. But there is light, a defiant glint in her eyes that mimics that of her lineage, Marle. She smiles and although pain still lingers, he sees a willingness to let him go.

He moves to stand, offering one final bow before he departs. This may be the last time he sees his queen and he takes his time to memorise every part of the woman who had accepted him into the palace with open arms, even though he no longer held the figure of man.

“Before you go… Glenn.” She holds her hand out, her long fingers just scant of reaching his own. “Let it be known that you are one of my dearest companions. The sun will never shine as bright with you no longer by my side, but I know that for every inch of happiness you gain away from this place that haunts you so, another star will light up the night sky. While I will miss you more than my heart can bear, the knowledge of your happiness will soon light up the darkness, and that is all I could ever wish for. Goodbye, my friend. I hope the world treats you well.”

He feels his throat become blocked, an emotion he cannot dare to show overflowing from beneath his unblinking eyes.

“I thank you, you’re majesty. More than my words could ever describe.”

He bows, one last time, and leaves.

He walks away from the palace walls, leaves his place as knight and steps back into the world as Frog, scant of all pomp and splendour.

He does not know where his feet will take him, but the paper world that he feels trapped in expands ever so slightly.

The ink is running and he feels a fluidity that sets his head apace.

Freedom burns at his soul and he quickens his pace.

Through the forest, from between the trees, he hops to a place he knows all to well from his adventures.

A place where time had held its weakest bond. Where those from the future had found themselves falling, a mystical invention gone wrong that had eventually led them here.

His feet draw him there and a part of his heart hopes that he finds what he’s looking for.

Not a gate, per-say, but something just as elusive.

For he hopes to see a cloak of red, a scythe held in strong hands. A companion that he had grown to care for in the strangest of ways, someone who he longed to know more about, to understand why he had committed the atrocities he did.

He hopes to see a man who had changed, just as he did. 

**Author's Note:**

> Idk where this series will go or if I’ll ever continue it, but I hope any readers enjoy it nonetheless, xx


End file.
